The Microsoft Courier: Microsoft's Stunning Counterattack to the Tablet Wars

Looks clunky. No elegance. I don't like it.

Will it do the job of a Kindle?

It'll kick Kindle's butt. It already has a color screen.

and, unlike the maxipad, it can be used as a phone

very interesting.

i like the concept, i don't like that it's microsoft

what he said


(and are any of these things going to come in at a netbook kinda price i.e. $100 - $250)

I don't think Microsoft understands the marketplace. Their video is selling this device to people doing business work. That market is already covered by Laptops. Maybe this device is just a new format laptop at a low price, but it's not what the great volume of people want.

What *most* people want is a simple way to waste time while sitting on the couch watching TV and avoiding commercials (which now account for more than 50% of network airtime). We also want a way to read books (kindle style) comfortably with a large enough screen (bigger than an iPod), but we don't want something clunky to do it with. (notice that I have decided to speak on everyone's behalf, some people may object to that, but I'm going for it anyway ).

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and predict that the Microsoft Product depicted above will go nowhere, while the iPad (despite it's name) will rampage over the planet over the next 5 years resulting in a new paradigm for how most home users interact with the Internet, and generating a plethora of copycat products (just as we've seen with the iPod, which continues to drive the market). For what it's worth (ie. nothing), that's what my crystal ball says.

I don't see how this thing is any clunkier then the Ipad when it comes to reading books.

It is interesting. The real question is - what are the specs, what OS, and what ports does it have? That's what will make or break a product like this.

Cycloptichorn

i'd like to see more about how the screens work, are they independent of each other or used to run two parts of one application

it would be nice to be reading a book or periodical on one screen and have a browser open in the other

The iPad is going to range from $500 to about $700.

I expect the Courier will be about the same.

They say it's a "real" product but none of the images and video are of a real product so it's hard to evaluate right now. A folding tablet design could work (I'm not a huge fan but you could do things like have it double as a keyboard and be a traditional netbook configuration) and Microsoft tends to compete with features instead of design so it may please a niche, but I am not betting on Microsoft in this area right now and that isn't even a real product we are looking at.

It's up there with Google's proposed device - interesting, but would be better in person.

Cycloptichorn

Have most of you even bothered to watch the video? Some of your replies suggest you haven't.

I disagree with the assessment that this is a "business" device. True, the iPad is targetted at DumbAmerica - the section of consumers who want something sexy and comfortable to sit on their asses and watch videos/tv/film, listen to music and play mediocre games. A multimedia display device, and the iPad fits that niche perfectly (though it kills me to admit it.)

The Courier, by design, is targeted more at the artist/designer/writer market. It's a digital sketchpad, designed to capture images/words/ideas/art and let the user create with the device. It's the anti-iPad; rather than geared towards the multimedia VIEWER, it's meant for the multimedia CREATOR.

Honestly, all of the things I (and many others) were disappointed not to find in the iPad, are present in these concepts for the Courier. If Microsoft pulls this off and by the end of this year (this video is from last Fall), they could manage a small coup - this device is specifically designed for the multitasker, while the iPad is not. Two markets, two completely different interest groups. The Courier does, what the iPad don't. How's that for a tag line?

New vids!

http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/05/microsofts-courier-digital-journal-exclusive-pictures-and-de/

Looks pretty ******* sweet

Cycloptichorn

That is pretty slick. I won't ever do anything like that person was doing, but it looked cool.

It finally has arrived and it's kind of expensive ... but here is the first rendition of the Microsoft Tablet under the Toshiba brand:
http://www.watoday.com.au/digital-life/tablets/dualscreen-windows-tablet-takes-on-ipad-20100720-10iuo.html
Dual-screen Windows tablet takes on iPad
LOUISA HEARN
July 20, 2010 - 12:38PM


The video doesn't show the production model which has a physical keyboard n the back of the reversible clam shell case.